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List:       kde-announce
Subject:    =?iso-8859-1?Q?ANNOUNCE=3A_Final_Beta_Preview_of_Leading_Desk?=
From:       Martin Konold <konold () alpha ! tat ! physik ! uni-tuebingen ! de>
Date:       2000-09-15 11:36:31
[Download RAW message or body]


Note: This announcement is also available online via

	http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-1.94.html

The following mirrors are already in sync with ftp.kde.org

 ftp://ftp.de.kde.org/unstable/distribution/2.0.finalBeta/
 ftp://ftp.archive.de.uu.net/pub/X11/KDE/unstable/distribution/2.0.finalBeta
 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DATELINE SEPTEMBER 15, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

               Final Beta of KDE Desktop Available for Linux®

Final Beta Preview of Leading Desktop for Linux® and Other UNIXes®

September 14, 2000 (The INTERNET). The KDE Team today announced the
release of KDE 1.94, the fifth and final beta preview of Kopernicus, KDE's
next-generation, powerful, modular desktop. Following the release of KDE
1.93 on August 23, 2000, the release, code-named "Kandidat", is based on
Trolltech's Qt® 2.2.0 and will include the core KDE libraries, the core
desktop environment, the KOffice suite, as well as the over 100
applications from the other core KDE packages: Administration, Games,
Graphics, Multimedia, Network, Personal Information Management (PIM), Toys
and Utilities. The release is targeted at users who would like to help the
KDE team make usability, speed and feature enhancements and fix the
remaining set of bugs before the release of KDE 2.0 ("Kopernicus"),
scheduled for early-fourth quarter 2000. 

The major changes since the Beta 3 release last month include:

   * General stability improvements throughout the packages.
   * Major performance enhancements to the HTML widget. It also now fully
     supports "mailto:" URLs and caches pages for fast subsequent retrieval.
   * The latest Qt release, qt-2.2.0, which for the first time is licensed
     under the GNU General Public License, as well as the Q Public License.
   * Fixes to FTP and HTTP proxy support and many improvements to FTP
     support, including symlink support.
   * The Secure Socket Layer (SSL) code in Konqueror has been improved,
     although it is still undergoing heavy development.
   * Konqueror now features an "Open With" and "Save As" option for non-HTML
     links.
   * Useability enhancements, such as background colors for desktop icon
     text.

Highlights of Kandidat

Konqueror reigns as the next-generation web browser, file manager and
document viewer for KDE 2.0. Widely acclaimed as a technological
break-through for the Unix desktop, Konqueror has a component-based
architecture which combines the features and functionality of Internet
Explorer®/Netscape Communicator® and Windows Explorer®. Konqueror will
support the full gamut of current Internet technologies, including
JavaScript, Java®, HTML 4.0, CSS-2 (Cascading Style Sheets), SSL (Secure
Socket Layer for secure communications) and Netscape Communicator® plug-ins
(for playing FlashTM, RealAudioTM, RealVideoTM and similar technologies). In
addition, Konqueror's network transparency offers seamless support for
browsing Linux® NFS shares, Windows® SMB shares, HTTP pages, FTP directories
as well as any other protocol for which a KIO plug-in is available.

The KOffice suite is one of the most-anticipated Open Source projects. The
suite consists of a spreadsheet application (KSpread), a vector drawing
application (KIllustrator), a frame-based word-processing application
(KWord), a presentation program (KPresenter), and a chart and diagram
application (KChart). Native file formats are XML-based, and work on filters
for proprietary binary file formats is progressing. Combined with a powerful
scripting language and the ability to embed individuals components within
each other using KDE's KParts technology, the KOffice suite will provide all
the necessary functionality to all but the most demanding power users, at an
unbeatable price -- free.

KDE's customizability touches every aspect of this next-generation desktop.
Kandidat benefits from Qt's style engine, which permits developers and
artists to create their own widget designs down to the precise appearance of
a scrollbar, a button, a menu and more, combined with development tools
which will largely automate the creation of these widget sets. In addition,
KDE offers excellent support for GTK themes. Just to mention a few of the
legion configuration options, users can choose among: numerous types of menu
effects; a menu bar atop the display (Macintosh®-style) or atop each
individual window (Windows-style); icon styles; system sounds; key bindings;
languages; toolbar and menu composition; and much much more.

Downloading and Compiling the Final Beta

The source packages for Kandidat are available for free download at
http://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/unstable/distribution/2.0Beta5/tar/src/ or in the
equivalent directory at one of the many KDE ftp server mirrors. Kandidat
requires qt-2.2.0, which is available from the above locations under the
name qt-x11-2.2.0.tar.gz. Please be advised that Kandidat will not work with
any older versions of Qt. Qt 2.2 is a stable product and not part of KDE's
beta testing.

For further instructions on compiling and installing Kandidat, please
consult the installation instructions and, if you encounter problems, the
compilation FAQ.

Installing Binary Packages of the Final Beta

The binary packages for Kandidat will be available for free download under
http://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/unstable/distribution/2.0Beta5/ or under the
equivalent directory at one of the many KDE ftp server mirrors. Kandidat
requires qt2.2.0, which is available from the above locations. Please be
advised that Kandidat will not work with any older versions of Qt. Qt is not
part of KDE's beta testing.

At the time of this release, pre-compiled packages are available for:

   * Linux-Mandrake
   * Caldera Open Linux 2.4
   * SuSE Linux AXP 6.4
   * SuSE Linux i386 6.4
   * SuSE Linux i386 7.0
   * SuSE Linux PPC 6.4
   * SuSE Linux noarch
   * FreeBSD

Check the ftp servers periodically for pre-compiled packages for other
distributions. More binary packages will become available over the coming
days.

About KDE

KDE is an independent, collaborative project by hundreds of developers
worldwide to create a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop
environment employing a component-based, network-transparent architecture.
Currently development is focused on KDE 2, which will for the first time
offer a free, Open Source, fully-featured office suite and which promises to
make the Linux desktop as easy to use as Windows® and the Macintosh® while
remaining loyal to open standards and empowering developers and users with
Open Source software. KDE is working proof of how the Open Source software
development model can create first-rate technologies on par with and
superior to even the most complex commercial software.

For more information about KDE, please visit KDE's web site.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 Press Contacts:

               United States:   Kurt Granroth
                                granroth@kde.org
                                (1) 480 732 1752

                                Andreas Pour
                                pour@kde.org
                                (1) 718-456-1165

 Europe (English and German):   Martin Konold
                                konold@kde.org
                                (49) 179 2252249


Yours,
-- martin

// Martin Konold, Stauffenbergstr. 107, 72074 Tuebingen, Germany  //   
KDE:  The most advanced GUI for a reliable OS.

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